Chinese-owned social media video-sharing app TikTok and parent company ByteDance filed an emergency request in the US Supreme Court to block the ban.
The appeal came as TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew met Preseident-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, Florida, on Monday, December 16, 2024, reported Reuters.
In the last possible effort, TikTok and ByteDance on Monday requested the Supreme Court to temporarily block the law that could ban the app in the US if the parent company did not divest it by January 19, 2025.
In a filing to the highest Court they said, “If Americans, duly informed of the alleged risks of 'covert' content manipulation, choose to continue viewing content on TikTok with their eyes wide open, the First Amendment entrusts them with making that choice, free from the government's censorship."
“And if the D.C. Circuit's contrary holding stands, then Congress will have free rein to ban any American from speaking simply by identifying some risk that the speech is influenced by a foreign entity," the filing further added.
The social media platform while calling itself the "most important speech platform" used in the United States is not causing any threat to the US national security and delaying the ban would help the Supreme Court and the upcoming Trump administration time to evaluate the law
